Kristen Bell has quipped that she came out of “retirement” because she wanted to “leave the house a little more.”
In recent years, the Good Place star has taken a step back from acting while busy at home with her two daughters, whom she shares with her husband, Dax Shepard. Now, she is returning to the spotlight with the new TV series Nobody Wants This.
On the September 16 episode of his Armchair Expert podcast, Shepard and Adam Brody, who also stars in Nobody Wants This, asked Bell why she had decided to come out of retirement.
The actor said she had felt she was “losing” herself a bit and was eager to feel the “electricity” of performing again.
“Desire to be creative and leave the house a little more because I have spent the last couple of years being, like, a full-time mum,” she said. “And although I’ve enjoyed that, I feel like I’ve gotten a good foundation here, and I felt like I was losing myself a little bit in it.”
Christopher Polk/Getty Images for People’s Choice Awards
Bell and Shepard tied the knot in 2013, and their daughters are Lincoln, 11, and Delta, 9.
Shepard said on the podcast that while Bell hadn’t been acting, she wasn’t retired, as she had been working on other projects in various roles, including as a producer. Bell said performing had been the draw to return to the screen.
“I was eager to perform again,” the star said. “And when I stopped performing, I guess a couple of years ago, I was so tired of it. I was tired of the hair and makeup. I was tired of the forward-facing. I was like, ‘I just want to be creative behind the scenes.’
“And then I realized: ‘Wait, I wanna do it again. I wanna feel that kind of electricity again, of chance and risk.'” Newsweek has contacted a representative for Bell for comment by email.
Bell said she had options but was drawn to her new series, which follows agnostic Joanne (Bell) and her relationship with unconventional rabbi Noah (Brody). “When I read this script, I just thought I had never read anything else like it,” she said.
“And I loved the idea of seeing people who shouldn’t be together for what seemed like very real reasons, but if you can make the chemistry strong enough that’s so appealing to watch. I just thought the engine was great, and I thought if I could get Adam to do it that would be even better.”
Nobody Wants This is set to premiere on Netflix on September 26.